


Day vs. Miller: The Reagan Saga

by cecilia095



Category: New Girl
Genre: F/F, F/M, Love Triangles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-29
Updated: 2016-02-29
Packaged: 2018-05-23 22:18:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6131909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cecilia095/pseuds/cecilia095
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You don't even like chicks, Jess!"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Day vs. Miller: The Reagan Saga

**Author's Note:**

> This story contains some spoilers for this Tuesday's episode "Heat Wave", but it's mostly speculation because I am not a psychic. 
> 
> Someone (a few someones?) on Tumblr talked about Reagan meeting Jess and instantly liking _her_ over Nick because duh, and then Jess and Nick getting all competitive on who Reagan truly likes/who she'd come back for and fighting-slash-making out (mostly making out) over the topic. Then this was born.

Reagan meets Jess the moment she gets back from Jury Duty. Jess drops her bags down on her (Reagan's) (temporary) bedroom floor and sighs and says, "Oh! You must be Reagan!" with wide eyes. She's prettier than the guys warned Jess she'd be, and she's also nice.

"Can I help you unpack?", she asks, and when Jess says that she's got it, that she's lazy and she'll unpack tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after that, -- or  _Hey, why don't I just make Schmidt do it, yeah?_ \--, Reagan quickly wheels her suitcases out of Jess's bedroom and into the hallway.

"Super good room," Reagan says when she steps back inside, and Jess just laughs. "Okay, not really. What's with that bedspread?"

Jess shrugs and takes a seat at the end of her bed. Damn, she's missed this. (Note: Hotel rooms have crappy everything, but those  _beds_.) "Got it on sale at IKEA when I was nineteen. We're over a decade strong."

Reagan presses her lips together. "I don't know how you deal with these guys," she says, and Jess goes, "Oh God, what did they do?"

"Um. What  _didn't_ they do. I kind of like Schmidt, and Winston is decent, but  _Nick_..."

Of course. "Did he Panic Moonwalk at you? I mean, you're super pretty, and he's not -- he's not  _human_ around pretty human beings, he's just not."

"We like." Reagan stops, and she gulps, and she knows their history or whatever, she must. "We kind of kissed outside the other day, but I didn't like it so I pulled away, and then he started pouting like a little boy and some homeless man just...  _hugged him_ and I went inside and watched  _Saturday Night Live_ with Winston and we haven't spoken since."

Jess widens her eyes. "Oh."

"I know you guys were like... a thing, or not, I don't really understand Nick when he rambles on about you. Or anything. Has he ever told you the story about how he got that scar --"

"On his back. Falling on a fence when he was six. Legally dead for ten minutes. He tells it a lot."

"Jess, I just --" They don't know each other well, but now Reagan is touching her arm and she looks  _sorry_ and Jess doesn't want anyone to feel sorry for her because she and Nick... they're not... you know. "I don't think I'm supposed to come between you two."

Jess lets out this sarcastic laugh, her head titled back, and then she looks Reagan right in the face and blinks at her a few times. "I'm sorry,  _what_?"

"I'm good at reading people, and I know that every time Nick talked about you it was because he doesn't feel finished with you."

"Okay, no, see, you're crazy, you've got crazy eyes --"

"Actually, you kind of have crazy eyes, Jess, but they work for you, they do --"

"And Nick and I are  _not_ \-- Please. Nick!  _Nick_. We're over it. I have a better chance of dating  _Winston_. Nick. Ha! As if. Ugh. There I go quoting _Clueless_ again."

"Winston is in love with his Lady Cop Friend, so you're shit out of luck."

"Winston is _what_?! Aly?!" Jess widens her eyes. "How much did I miss in a month?"

Reagan pinches her index finger and her thumb together. "Did you hear the story about Schmidt simultaneously twerking and crying while eating Mexican food?"

"I... can't say I have."

"Great, so we can start there."

They stay cooped up in Jess's room talking for  _hours_.

—

Reagan gets ready to move out first thing Monday morning, and Nick's all weird about it (duh).

"I made you "Hit The Road" pancakes," he says, and he flips the pan and drops the pancakes all over the kitchen floor and Schmidt doesn't even race to clean them up because he's too busy laughing with Cece and Winston about how stupid Nick is being.

Jess chokes on her cereal and then walks over to the stove, patting Nick on the back. "' _Hit The Road_ ' pancakes? Nice name for 'em, Miller."

"It would've worked if I didn't drop the damn pancakes!", he yell-whispers at her.

Reagan drops the duffel bag she's holding onto the kitchen floor and swings open the fridge, grabbing a smoothie. "You don't mind, do you?", she asks Schmidt, because they're his. He tells her to take a few for the road so she does, and then she zips her duffel bag shut and sighs. "I guess this is it. Let's not get all weird and sentimental and talk about how fun living with you crazies for a month was, but... Just know that it was."

Cece and Schmidt and Winston jump out of their chairs and wrap Reagan in a big hug even though she insists she hates them. 

"If you're ever in LA again, you better come visit," says Winston.

"And bring me back one of those uterus-shaped stress toys, huh?", asks Schmidt.

"Done and done. I hope I can come back for the wedding."

Schmidt levels a hand at her. "Me too, obviously. You promised us you'd get us something good off the registry."

"I'll do my best," she says, and then she grabs onto the handle of her suitcases and hoists her duffel bag higher up on her shoulder. "Um... Jess?"

Jess sets down her spoon in her cereal bowl. "Yeah, what's up? If you did anything funky on my comforter and think now would be a good time to tell me, just uh, just save it."

"I actually... Do you wanna walk me out?"

Jess looks at Cece and Schmidt and Winston who are all kind of confused-slash-intrigued, and then she looks at Nick who's still over by the stove, his eyes wide and panic-y as he plays with the flame over and over and over. 

"I mean, why would I say no to that? We've known each other for a solid two-and-a-half days." Jess jokes, and then she takes one of Reagan's suitcases from her and walks out of Apartment 4D.

—

"I don't know how else to start this, but if there's one thing I learned from any of these weirdos this last month, it's that I should always be honest. You know, no holding back."

Again: They've known each other for two-and-a-half days. Jess is confused. She presses the button for the elevator and waits against the wall, and Reagan is waiting too, and just looking at her.

"You," she starts, "are  _so_... pretty."

Jess blushes and goes, "Ha! Me? No! But thank you. I actually picked up a new skincare regimen while I was away on Jury Duty, so that could totally be it."

"No, like, -- Okay, correct me if I'm wrong, but you're giving me this super awesome bisexual vibe right now, and I'm trying to roll with it without freaking out and running away."

"I'm --" Jess pauses and lets go of Reagan's luggage and lets it fall to the floor, and then she lets out this obnoxious laugh and goes, "I'm sorry?"

"You're into girls, right?", Reagan asks, and Jess doesn't know how to answer her. She wants to say, 'I had a crush on Malibu Barbie when I was a kid, does that count?'. "Look, next time I'm in LA and I visit these clowns, I just really hope you aren't on Jury Duty."

"But you and... You and Nick," Jess starts to say, and Reagan waves her off with a hand and a laugh.

" _Please_. Look, Nick is a nice guy, I'm sure we both know that, but I didn't  _feel_ anything," she says.

"And you  _feel_ something now?", asks Jess, blinking a few times. "I don't -- I'm not -- You're just -- Oh, look, the elevator suddenly opened! Run, Reagan, run!"

Reagan frantically grabs onto her luggage, but she stops right before she walks into the elevator and pulls this little card out of the pocket of her shorts. "That's my business card, but the number on it is my personal cell. I guess I'm trying to tell you to call me. If you want."

—

"...And then she gave me her  _number_."

Cece is  _dying_. She's legitimately laughing-dying in the middle of the kitchen, and she points at Nick and goes, "You have the shittiest luck, Miller."

"Don't remind me, man," he says, and he shakes his head and sits down at the island right next to Jess. "Jess, you steal a lot of things from me: Space on the DVR, hoodies from 2012 you  _still_ haven't given back, and a lot of my best sex moves; all used on you. But you can't have Reagan."

"Yeah, well neither can you, apparently," Cece snorts.

"Not helping!", Nick yells, and then his eyes are on Jess's like daggers. "I mean, I get it, I do. You're a beautiful woman, and those eyes are distracting, and okay, I feel like your boobs really filled out while you were away."

"Oh! It's a new bra. Yeah, there was a Victoria's Secret a block down from the hotel."

"Well it's really flattering, Jess, it is."

"Thanks, that's -- Hey, wait, don't compliment me to try and get on my good side! I'm not giving Reagan back. She wants  _me_ , Nick, and you can't deal with that fact."

"Jess, are you  _serious_ right now?"

Jess tilts her head and wrinkles her nose and looks Nick dead in the face. "Uh. Yeah! Absolutely, one-hundred percent, for reals."

"You don't even like chicks, Jess!"

"Yeah, but I like _winning_ , so there!"

—

Jess calls Reagan, but mostly to rub it in Nick's face.

He's been walking around the loft for a week, seven days straight, moping about how they shared a kiss and it was definitely like, a six-out-of-ten, and that Reagan should be asking  _him_ to call her, not  _Jess_.

"How's your girlfriend, Dirty J?", Schmidt asks, looking up from the bridal magazine he's circling a bunch of crap in. "Hey, when you're done bragging about your conversation with Reagan to Nick, can you tell me which centerpiece looks better for the Bride and Groom table?"

Jess nods at him and then she walks over to the counter. "Hey, Nick."

Nick mumbles something incoherent under his breath, and then he says, " _Jessica_."

"Reagan sends her love from Toronto. To me. She sends her love to me, because she has the hots for me."

Nick sticks his tongue out at Jess. "Wait, I don't believe that! You guys aren't  _in love_. You. Don't. Like. Girls. You wouldn't even admit that my middle school girlfriend Cindy de la Garza got super hot when I showed you her Facebook."

"Cindy de la Garza works at Best Buy, and she also has a mullet, and I  _could_ like girls. I like Reagan."

"You like torturing me, Jessica," he says, and then he drops his fork onto his plate of half-eaten eggs and stomps into his room and tells everyone in the loft not to look for him if he doesn't come out for the next few days.

—

"What pet name should I call her back?", Jess asks, and she holds her phone out to all of the guys as if they can see what's on the screen. (They can't.)

"Depends," says Schmidt, raising a finger. "Are we going for 'sexy', or like, 'my first pet bunny'?"

Jess tilts her head and squints her eyes. "Good question! Um. Both?"

"I have one," Nick interrupts, and Jess just looks over at him and rolls her eyes. "Call her 'Stolen', because you  _stole her_ from me."

"Super original, Nick,  _super original_. Hey, is sexting still cool? Because I'm about to go lock myself in my room and do that."

Winston lifts his cereal bowl away from his mouth and blinks at her a few times. "Wait, can Winnie watch?!"

"Winston!", yells Nick. "You're not supposed to support this, man. You're Team Nick, remember?"

"'Team Nick and Anyone-Else-But-Reagan'. She rejected you, dude. Outside Dave said you stained his shirt with your tears. Outside Dave. Stained his shirt. He's  _homeless_!"

—

One night Nick and Schmidt and Winston are at the bar late and it's just Jess and Cece, and it hasn't been just Jess and Cece forever.

They drink two glasses of pink wine each, and Cece shows Jess the soon-to-be-abanonded warehouse she and Schmidt are getting married in (and Jess offers her expert decorating advice, of course). After they're done talking about the wedding, Jess cleans up the coffee table and says, "Crap. It's 12 A.M. and I work at a middle school."

"Fine, fine, we can go to bed," Cece says, closing one of the magazines they've been flipping through. "But I  _do_ have a question before we do."

"If it's about the centerpiece, just -- just go with the one Schmidt liked. He has really good ideas, you know. Night, Ceec!"

"Not about the wedding, about you. And Reagan. And Nick. You don't really like her, do you? Like... If you do, I don't care, because I love you, and you supported me through _my_ experimental phase, but yours is a little late, don't you think?"

Jess shakes her head and rubs her lips together. "I don't like Reagan, Cece."

"Then why are you  _doing this_?", she asks, obviously confused. 

"Can I be honest?", Jess asks, and Cece nods and says 'Of course'. "It's the pink wine. It makes me slutty, but also talky. I start... confessing things."

Cece sits wide-eyed on the couch and just looks up at Jess, and then she reaches out and pours herself another glass because it's 12 A.M. and she does  _not_ work at a middle school.

"I like messing with Nick, and it's -- I don't know, it's stupid, but it's been so long since we've just... joked around with each other, and maybe he has real feelings for Reagan, but maybe he doesn't, and --" Jess takes a second to sigh, and then she rubs her temples and goes, "Ugh. Ew. I hate feelings! And talking about my feelings! Ugh."

Cece levels a hand at her. "I know. I love Schmidt, but he expects our wedding vows to be like a Shakespearean Sonnet, and I'm just not capable."

Jess doesn't say anything, just grunts and grabs one of the throw pillows off of the couch and yells into it, in Classic Jess Fashion.

"Babe, if you miss Nick, just  _tell him_. I think he feels like that door is closed, so he walked through Reagan's door, but now Reagan's trying to walk through  _your_ door -- and your lady-door. Ha. That was a good one. I'm drunk."

"Cece!" Jess turns to face her best friend and hits her in the arm with a pillow, and then she yells into the pillow again. "Can't I just keep messing with him a little longer?"

Cece shrugs. "I mean, it entertains me and Schmidt and Winston, so..."

—

"Hey, Nick."

She closes his bedroom door behind her, and he's sitting at his desk writing (or not -- the Word document is kind of blank), and then he turns around and waves at her.

"I was just wondering if you could throw some laundry in for me later," she says, and Nick just nods and goes, "I mean, I guess, sure."

"Great, because I haven't washed my sheets since Reagan moved out. They just... smell so much like her. I'm not ready to say goodbye yet, but I have to. Schmidt gave me a lecture this morning."

Nick lets out a huff and shakes his head. "If she makes you happy, Jess, then I'm sorry. Maybe someone like you is what Reagan needs. Just don't do your Daffy Duck impression in bed; Disney characters freak her out."

At first, Jess says, "Noted", but then she looks at Nick and he actually looks... you know... un-Nick, and she starts to feel bad. "Nick, if there was really something between you guys, I don't -- I can't come between that."

Nick looks at the floor, and then at her. "You know, I'm actually convinced she hates me!", he says, and Jess asks why he's laughing. "Because I'm insane, Jess."

"Yeah, no, you're definitely insane, Miller."

"You know I actually sniffed her hair because Cece and Schmidt told me it was a wig to freak me out?"

"You did  _what_?"

"Long story. Basically: I kept eating Mexican food in their bedroom while they tried to bone, they got mad at me, told me Reagan wore a wig, I was skeptical, but it's a wig."

"It's not a wig, Nick," Jess says, rolling her eyes. "Do you even know what wigs look like?"

"Uh, yeah, actually I do. Reagan's hair...", he says, rolling his eyes back at her.

"You're  _so_ gullible, Nick. And that's coming from me.  _Me_! I'm gullible-r. More gullible. Than you. Damn it."

Nick bats his eyes like crazy, and he spins around in his desk chair so he's completely facing Jess. 

"I don't have a thing for Reagan. We actually didn't even speak on the phone that time I told you we did; we texted."

"Was it -- Were they nice texts?", he asks, dumbfounded. 

"She used the wrong form of 'there' and I freaked out, but then she corrected herself in the next text, so -- Yeah, I guess, but I'm not  _into her_."

Nick breathes out this little sigh of relief, and then Jess wrinkles her nose and asks, "But are you?"

"I thought I was," he says honestly, cracking his knuckles all nervously, "but I don't know. She didn't even say bye to me when she left."

"You made her 'Hit the Road' pancakes and then freaked out like a little bitch when you dropped them all over the floor," Jess says smugly. "I wouldn't have said bye to you either."

"Jess," he says, and he pauses and clears his throat. "I don't blame Reagan for crushing on you. I'd crush on you too if I were me. Wait. I didn't. Okay, that came out wrong, I think."

Jess takes a seat at the end of Nick's bed and makes a joke about how it's actually made for once in his adult life. "Reagan didn't go for you because she thought you and I were still... you know."

"Boning?", Nick asks, and then he purses his lips and starts to crack up. 

Jess's cheeks get hot. "I think she was thinking more along the lines of 'in love' or something, but." 

Nick's gaze falls to the floor because he's too embarrassed to look at Jess right now. "Oh. I mean, okay, did I talk about you a lot? Maybe, but most of it was totally platonic. Except for the one story I told her about that time Schmidt tricked us into doing "The Captain"."

Jess palms her forehead. "Oh my God, did you ask her to do that with you?", she asks, shaking her head frantically.

"What?! God no. Jess, "The Captain" is sacred territory between you and me, until the day I die. -- I go first. I decided it's gonna happen on a boat, probably."

Jess laughs, and then she says, "What if we take ourselves together, like, Romeo and Juliet style? Then no one will ever know about "The Captain"."

"I can live with that," he says, and then he joins her at the end of his bed and they laugh about The Captain and Reagan and the fact that Outside Dave had to legitimately hold Nick like a baby after he got rejected and Nick even lets Jess complain about how crappy hotel shampoos are for a full thirty minutes.

—

The day Reagan is supposed to come back in town is four days before Cece and Schmidt's wedding. She's in LA on business, and she'll be making it to the wedding with no problem, and she  _did_ get that thing Schmidt said she'd be getting them on their registry. Schmidt invites her to stay with them back at the loft, and she says that the couch is fine and she's super excited to see everyone again, and  _'Please, no 'Hit The Road' pancakes when I leave.'_

Nick's not even nervous about seeing her, because it wasn't meant to be; him and Reagan and their hypothetical sarcastic, business-savvy, crooked-nosed babies.

Cece and Schmidt are meeting with the wedding planner at twelve, and Winston's working, and Jess and Nick are  _here_ because they have nowhere else to be and there's also a  _Law and Order: SVU_ marathon on TV.

"So, not sweating it, huh?", Jess teases, and she pokes Nick on the side and he doesn't even flinch or look away from the TV. " _Really_?"

"I know. Usually I'd be a nervous mess, but I might even hug her hello and call her 'Pal'."

"You've thought a lot about this, haven't you?"

Nick scrunches up his nose and says, "You know what? I actually haven't."

Jess bites the inside of her cheek and turns off the TV, and when Nick yells, "Hey! They  _just_ got the perp in custody, what are you doing?", she shakes her head and spins around so her whole body is facing his.

"Maybe Reagan was right," Jess says. "Maybe she  _was_ about to come between something."

It takes Nick a second. "Wha -- Oh. Um. Us. You think so?"

Jess doesn't answer him, and it's the first time she has nothing to say. (Seriously. Ask everyone she lives with or anyone she's had more than a two-minute conversation with. They'll tell you.) 

She traces a hand down his thigh and inches into him subtly, and she watches him tense up and gulp and widen his eyes. "Nick..."

"Hey, Jess," he says, all casual, like they're not --  _you know_. 

Jess decides to just go for it. She lunges at him and her arms are trailing down his torso. Her lips meet his in this fervent kiss, because they haven't kissed this way in what... two whole years? 

Nick pulls away from her after they kiss a few times, and he looks at her, both of his arms holding onto hers. "Wait, is this -- Is this what you want?"

She nods and mutters an, "Uh huh. Shh."

"Because I'm a changed man, Jessica. I learned how to make my bed the proper way while you were gone."

" _Ugh_. You're really rambling at me right now, Nick?" She shakes her head and slides onto his lap even further, straddling him.

Nick shrugs underneath Jess and tries to say, "I guess I'm not" before Jess can cut him off with a kiss. 

Their kisses deepen and deepen, and  _God_ , they've obviously missed this. Nick rolls Jess over and he's hovering atop her, making his way down her neck, and then her middle. He's just about to lift up her shirt and go to work on her bra when the door swings open.

"Hey guys, I'm -- Oh! Oh my God! I was right! This  _is_ happening!"

Jess frantically wiggles out from underneath Nick, and Nick lets out this shrill scream, and then the both of them sit up with wide eyes, facing the door.

"Su...rprise," Jess says, waving her hands above her head. "I'm not into girls and I was totally sucking Nick's face ten seconds ago."

"And I let her.  _Hard_. And I didn't make you 'Hit the Road' pancakes. I'm sorry. I don't know what I'm saying now. No one tell Schmidt we were hooking up out here, okay? He'll be pissed. He says too much rubbing ruins the leather. I'm gonna shut up now."

"No, don't, it's actually entertaining," Reagan says, setting down her suitcase and shutting the front door behind her. "Actually, this whole thing was. Pretending to have a crush on Jess to prove a point, mostly, but..."

"Pretending to have a  _what_ \--"

"On Jess. Not real. You pretended."

"No matter who I made the moves on, the two of you ended up right here, back with each other. It's kind of what I do. You're welcome!"

 


End file.
